the largest loss of apple diversity in the US was due to the prohibition. the temperance movement put an uncountable number of orchards to the axe. during the prohibition the apple tree was regarded as evil… like forbidden fruit from the garden of eden evil. this is because apple production in the states was, from its inception, about hard cider production. it wasn’t until a few clever apple orchard growers switched gears and started trying to market apples as a healthy food (“an apple a day keeps the doctor away” is a marketing slogan) and the pursuit of a not-so-tart and most importantly shelf-stable, red apple became the new goal.

then and now apple trees are the product of grafting scion wood from the tree that makes fruit you like to the root stock (root cuttings). it’s clonal. apples are not “true to seed” in that their genetic combination from sexual reproduction is random as shit, so seed germination is the provenance of weirdo experimenters and wild/volunteerism, so apart from research stations and other oddities, apple groves/orchards are extremely uniform, genetically. certainly, nurseries are trying to “invent” new varieties to sell, but it takes time for those varieties to actually be evaluated for pest resilience, climate hardiness, fruit production, etc. and nurseries don’t have time for all that… they want to sell their cuttings to the next sucker ASAP. apple growers do intermix varieties, due to the timing of pollination to stimulate fruit production.

and fuck this guy. red delicious always were kinda bullshit compared to others. it looks good and stays looking good on the shelf longer. that’s it. most of the varieties of fruits and vegetables you eat were selected for these traits: shelf stable, big size, looks good, edible. you have to start finding local growers to get at the actual good food with high stats in texture, flavor, etc.

red delicious might have “tasted” sweeter to old timers, but that’s because not everything was maxed out on sugar stats back then. it’s almost certainly the same deal with sweet corn varieties from the 1950s and sweet corn today. and you don’t call a variety “delicious” unless you’re trying to sell it, just like the primary source for this article which is a longform advertisement for a nursery. they called it “red” because they wanted to distinguish it from the golden delicious, which is also only OK tasting. a real king doesn’t need to remind people they’re the king. they just be the king. like 👑honeycrisp👑 .

if you want to read an actual insane history of apples in the US, read Mike Pollan’s The Botany of Desire . it’s a phenomenal read that talks about 4 plants as representatives for 4 human desires: Apples for sweetness, Tulips for beauty, Cannabis for intoxication, and Potatoes for power. it fuckin’ kicks ass and is a page turner.

or, if you just want to get righteously angry about capitalism and plants, check out Jack Kloppenburg’s First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology.